KEEPERS OF THE PRAIRIE
The case of the blacktailed prairie dog
reveals many of the
issues and misconceptions that lead to
species becoming
endangered.
ARIZONA SCIENCE
STANDARDS
SC05-S3C2-02,
SC03-S3C1-02,
SC03-S3C1-01&02,
SC03-S4C3-03&05,
SC03-S4C3-01
OBJECTIVES
Students should:
· Outline the reasons
for black-tailed prairie
dogs’ near extinction.
· Discuss the importance of prairie dogs in
the prairie ecosystem.
· Explain the attitudes
that led to prairie dog
extirpation and how
those attitudes were
misinformed.
VOCABULARY
Conservation
Endangered species
Habitat
Population
Threatened species
BACKGROUND
Fewer than 100 years ago, black-tailed
prairie dogs numbered an estimated 5
billion across the prairies of western North
America. By the early 1970s, black-tailed
prairie dog numbers had dropped so much
that they were in danger of extinction.
What happened? Prairie dogs were the
victims of development and unwarranted
disfavor that virtually extirpated the species. As people moved into the prairies,
prairie habitats were altered for agriculture
and urban development. In the rangelands,
ranchers viewed prairie dogs as pests and
embarked on a poisoning and shooting
campaign to eradicate them from the range.
Misguidedly, ranchers believe that prairie
dogs compete with their livestock for grass
and other forage. In actuality, prairie dogs
avoid many plants that livestock prefer and
eat plants that livestock avoid. Prairie dog
foraging habits are an important part of the
prairie ecosystem because they improve
the quality of certain plants, so much so
that pronghorn antelope, American bison,
and livestock prefer to graze on land
occupied by prairie dog colonies.
Despite the evidence that prairie dogs
pose little threat to the livestock industry,
prairie dogs are still persecuted through
eradication programs and recreational
shooting. Today, they are found in
fragmented populations throughout much
of their range (they have been extirpated
from Arizona), and are mostly restricted
to Wildlife Refuges, Indian reservations,
and National Parks and preserves. In
response to their decline, in 1998 it was
proposed that they be added to the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service’s list of Endangered and Threatened Species. After
much review, the agency determined that
the black-tailed prairie dog warrants
listing under the Endangered Species
Act. But because other species in greater
need of protection await listing, the
Service will not list the species at this
time. Meanwhile, protection of the
prairie dog depends on states, tribes,
local communities, and private landowners. Several prairie region states have
developed and signed an agreement and
strategy for prairie dog conservation and
recovery. If efforts are successful, the
prairie dog may never need to be listed.
In their presumed competition with livestock, ranchers fear that prairie dogs
reproduce rapidly and that they continually
invade new range. Prairie dogs, however,
are moderate breeders. Only half of the
adult females in a colony produce litters
each year, and the average litter is size is
three or four. The area the colonies occupy
does not automatically increase with new
young. Research has shown, too, that
prairie dogs tend to establish colonies in
areas that livestock have already overgrazed, so these areas would be less
viable for livestock anyway. And, although
ranchers claim that livestock might stumble
into prairie dog burrows and break a leg,
actual incidences are rare.
Desert Discovery Class Teacher Information ©2000 , revised 2008 ASDM
KEEPERS OF THE PRAIRIE
DOING THE ACTIVITY
SETTING THE STAGE
MATERIALS
· a copy of the article
“Keepers of the
Prairie”* for each
student
· a map of North
America
*Reprinted with permission from the author,
Dorothy Hinshaw Patent.
Dorothy is also the author
of the book for children
“Prairie Dogs” published
by Clarion Books.
This article originally
appeared in “SPIDER,
the Magazine for Children” produced by
Carus Publishing Company. For subsciption
information, back issues,
and customer service: call
1-800-827-0227, check
the website at
www.spidermag.com, or
write to SPIDER, P.O.
Box 300, Peru, IL
61354.
1)Ask the students what they know about
prairie dogs. List their ideas on the
board. Explain that black-tailed prairie
dogs are being considered for listing as a
threatened species. Have the students
hypothesize possible reasons for their
decline. Elaborate on any of their
answers that reflect the causes as noted
in the background reading above.
2)Explain that habitat loss has been a
factor as people have changed the
prairies for their purposes. But habitat
loss is not the only reason black-tailed
prairie dogs are close to extinction.
3)Tell them that they are going to read an
article that shows how sometimes
people cause an animal or plant to go
extinct because they have opinions about
it that may not be based on truth. Pass
out a copy of the reading “Keepers of
the Prairie” to each student, have them
read it, and discuss it as a class.
2)Ask the students about the benefits
that prairie dogs provide the prairie:
·How do prairie dogs benefit other
animals that live on the prairie? (They
trim grass and plants which provides
more nutritionally valuable food for
grazers, their burrows and tunnels
provide homes, they are prey to other
animals, and they warn other animals
with their alarm calls.)
3) Have the students think about how
new scientific information might help in
the protection of a species. Do they
think people will change their minds
about prairie dogs now that scientists
have shown that prairie dogs are
actually useful for the prairie and not a
threat or competition?
4) Discuss what they think can be done
to protect prairie dogs. Can they work
together to make a proposal? What
arguments would different interests
have in the protection of prairie dogs?
EXTENSION
DISCUSSION
1) Ask the students about prairie dog
declines and the misconceptions people
have generated about prairie dogs:
·Why have prairie dog numbers dropped
so low? (habitat loss, elimination by
people)
· Why have people wanted to get rid of
prairie dogs? (They viewed them as
competition or a threat to livestock.)
·Are prairie dogs really as big of a threat
as they have been perceived to be?(no)
How do we know this? (Wildlife biologists have studied prairie dogs and
discovered their positive impacts.)
Have the students research and report on
the work of a wildlife biologist. Ask
questions such as:
·What do wildlife biologists do? (They
study wildlife in nature and report their
findings so people understand wildlife
and how to manage wildlife.)
·How do they study endangered and
threatened species? (They study
populations of animals to see if they
are healthy or declining.)
·How do they help protect endangered
and threatened species? (They make
recommendations for ways to protect
and restore wildlife populations , they
help with programs like captive breeding and release, and manage and
monitor wildlife.)
Desert Discovery Class Teacher Information ©2000, revised 2008 ASDM
STUDENT HANDOUT
Keepers of the Prairie*
Can you imagine a town with a population
bigger than that of the entire United States? This
town took up more land than Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode
Island combined. But the inhabitants of this
town weren’t people – they were prairie dogs.
Believe it or not, in 1901 a biologist found a
series of prairie dog towns in Texas that was
really this huge.
Of the five kinds of prairie dogs found in North
America, only the black-tailed prairie dog lives
in large, densely populated
towns. A prairie dog
town doesn’t look like
much on the surface,
but underground it’s a
different story. Each
family had its own set
of connected
burrows with two or
three entrances. One
large room serves as
a nesting chamber
where the animals
sleep at night. Side
pockets in the
burrows are used for
storing food such as grass.
They clip off all the grass in their towns, even
what they don’t eat. Doing this gives them a
clear view of any predators that might be
coming their way.
Prairie dogs create a unique protected
environment in their towns. The temperature in
underground burrows stays in the eighties in
summer, even when the sun is beating down. In
winter it can be bitterly cold above ground, but
the burrow temperature remains about forty
degrees Fahrenheit.
below ground. Almost twice as many kinds of
prairie animals live in an area with a town than in
the surrounding prairie. Prairie rattlesnakes,
spadefoot toads, tiger salamanders, and
burrowing owls all find protection in the prairie
dogs’ dark, moist burrows.
Rattlesnakes rest in the shade of prairie
dog’s burrows.
Above ground, birds such as Cassin’s
sparrows, lark buntings, and mountain plovers
favor town life. Pronghorns feed on the
herbs and shrubs that replace grass in
the center of town. Pronghorns
and other animals may benefit
from the prairie dogs’ alarm
system. Prairie dogs are always
on the alert for predators such as
golden eagles and coyotes. If a
prairie dog senses danger, it barks
loudly, and other aboveground
prairie dogs scamper for their
This prairie dog has
burrows.
sensed danger and is
sounding the alarm.
One predator of prairie dogs is
the black-footed ferret. It looks
like a masked bandit and lives in prairie dog
towns. The ferret feeds almost solely on prairie
dogs – its long, slender body slips easily through
their burrows.
The black-footed ferret is
North America’s rarest
mammal.
Many animals take advantage of the special
conditions prairie dogs create both above and
*Reprinted with permission Desert
fromDiscovery
DorothyClass
Hinshaw
author
Ó 2000
Hinshaw Patent
TeacherPatent,
Information
©2000
, revisedDorothy
2008 ASDM
Once prairie dogs thrived on the Great Plains
from Canada to Mexico. But now they live on
less than one percent of the land they originally
occupied. Once they numbered in the billions.
Now only thousands remain. Almost all of the
shortgrass and mixed prairie that was home to
prairie dogs ahas been replaced by cities, cattle
pastures, and fields of wheat and other crops.
The black-tailed prairie dog’s range stretches
from Canada to Mexico across the plains of the
United States.
In addition to losing their habitat, prairie dogs are
seen by many people as enemies that should be
destroyed. Because these animals eat grass,
ranchers view them as competition for their
cattle. With government support, ranchers have
tried to eliminate prairie dogs with expensive
poisoning campaigns. Some states even require
that prairie dogs be exterminated.
Some scientists now believe
that prairie dogs do more
good than harm. Yes, they
eat grass, but mostly old
stems and blades, and
much of their diet
is made up of
plants that cattle
don’t eat. This
trimming clears
the way for tender
young shoots to
grow that
contain more
nourishing
protein. The
fresh grass is
Pronghorns like to eat the plants
that grow in the center of prairie
also easier to
dog towns. Constant clipping
digest, and
by prairie dogs eventually kills
cattle and
the grass there, and shrubs and
bison prefer it
herbs grow instead.
to tough old
blades.
Because wildlife biologists have learned that
prairie dogs towns are so vital to the life of the
prairie, the government has recently changed its
policy and is no longer destroying them.
Meanwhile, the National Wildlife Federation
has asked the federal government to list this
animal as a threatened species. With
government protection instead of persecution,
prairie dogs and other animals that find homes
in their towns could become common sights on
the prairie once again.
Once the prairie dogs started disappearing, the
other animals that benefited from their towns
because less common, too. Without plenty of
prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets could not
survive. When prairie dogs lived across the
plains, the black-footed ferret had many homes,
too. Now it is an endangered species. In the
1980s these animals survived in only one prairie
dog town in Wyoming. United States Fish and
Wildlife Service employees carefully trapped the
remaining ferrets and began breeding them in
captivity. Now the ferrets are once again being
released into the wild.
Desert Discovery Class Teacher Information ©2000, revised 2008 ASDM